Smallholder farmers are facing a set of interconnected challenges that are making the sustainability of family farming problematic worldwide. Among these challenges is the sustainable access and use of water resources in a context of increased scarcity that has both anthropogenic and natural causes. In this session, we aim to gather case studies of collective agricultural water management practices using participatory approaches and modelling initiatives. We invite academics, decision makers, and activists to share their experience of such initiatives and reflect on their potential to support sustainable collective access to water by smallholder farmers.
We welcome contributions describing the actors involved in participatory initiatives and their interests, the process of engagement that was followed, but also the tools that were used - from numerical models describing hydrological processes to serious games, and their effect on the actual management of surface or groundwater resources.
Some of the questions these case studies could address are listed below: